Christmas Homebrew Experiment - the results!

So for yesterday evening's beer-drinking selection it was none other than the homebrew which we started a few weeks ago.  It's been maturing nicely ever since, and other than a few small samples it's been left untouched so I was glad to get a few glasses of it to sample!

Firstly, the name - and my dad's to blame for this one.  It's been given the pun-tastic monicker of Blawnag Ale, in honour of the winter months.  Say it out loud and you'll get the pun (although you may prefer to remain ignorant, to be honest - it is pretty groanworthy!)

All in all it's a pretty decent effort - a nice dark colour, a fairly minimalistic head, and a nice bitter flavour.  It won't win any awards, but for a first attempt I'm really quite chuffed with it.  Plus it does what you'd expect from a beer of around 5.8% or so - after 3 or 4 glasses I was pleasantly tipsy.  It certainly went well with Christmas dinner.

Come 2013 we're planning to get the necessary kit together and start brewing from whole grain rather than from a malt extract - watch this space!